Crowd funding in libraries: by the people and for the people
| Published date | 03 December 2018 |
| Date | 03 December 2018 |
| Pages | 12-14 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-03-2018-0017 |
| Author | Sarika Sawant |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Library & information services |
Crowd funding in libraries: by the people and for
the people
Sarika Sawant
Introduction
Crowd funding is a method to raise
funds for a specific cause or project by
asking a large number of people to
donate money, usually in small
amounts, and usually during a
relatively short period, such as a few
months. Crowd funding is done
exclusively online, often with social
networks, which make it easy for
supporters to share a cause or project
with their social networks (http://
grantspace.org). Crowd funding is a
method of asking money from a large
number of people rather than asking a
single person or entity to fund an
entire project/initiative.
Organizations, businesses, trusts,
associations and individuals alike can
use crowd funding for any type of
project, for example charitable cause,
creative project, business startup,
school tuition or personal expenses, and
to help develop libraries and library
collections and other resources (http://
grantspace.org).
Crowd funding can be used through
various platforms. Some take a cut of
donations, and some may even require
setup or promotional fees. Deckers
(2017) found that services may charge
fees as low as 2.5 per cent of each
donationtoasmuchas15percentof
the total capital raised. It depends on
the service and what you are hoping to
accomplish. It is recommended to
do research before starting a crowd
funding campaign for your library or
for yourself (e.g. help in travel to
attend a conference, to develop
libraries or provide library training in
another country).
In our turbulent, challenging
economic times, there is a necessity
to look at funding strategies and
practices in new innovative ways. For
a library’s funding campaign, a
mission statement is critical in
requesting monies to support
engagement of their communities and
make a difference economically,
socially and educationally and to
have an optimistic impact on the
betterment of our world. Libraries
regardless of their type, i.e. public/
academic/special, have become
superior at applying for and receiving
grants and justifying their budgets
and finances to their local and
regional/national funding authorities.
Recent innovations in crowd
funding online options have created
new opportunities for libraries to seek
and get funding for projects and
initiatives that are important to them
and related to their mission. People
like to invest in libraries. Websites
like Rally.org, Kickstarter, Indiegogo
andgofundmehavebeenusedby
libraries across many nations to
successfully raise funds to fuel their
projects and engage their
communities. There are plenty of
crowd funding platforms available for
librarians to accomplish the mission of
raising money. The exhaustive list is
available on Wikipedia. Kickstarter
and Indiegogo are most often used by
individuals and companies to help
fund new consumer electronics and
provide incentives for early
supporters. Providing incentives to
early supporters of a funding
campaign, in particular related to
novel e-services, is one way in which
libraries might explore these two
unique sites.
Some examples of crowd funding in
worldwide libraries
The Northlake (IL) Public
Library District wanted to
increase its popular graphic
novel collection and add a fun
element to attract young adults,
for which it launched a crowd
funding campaign in 2013
through Indiegogo to raise
$30,000. The plan was to use the
money to buy a statue of the
Incredible Hulk, many new
graphic novels and new
technology, including a 3D
printer and an iMac with a
drawing pad. A boxing gym
owner in California saw the
campaign online and decided to
donate his own Hulk statue, a
decoration from the premiere of
the 2008 movie The Incredible
Hulk. A logistics company
donated transportation for the
massive statue. With an
additional $4,262 raised from the
online campaign, the library was
able to buy all the technology it
wanted, as well as quite a few
graphic novels to boot (Cottell,
2014).
In 2014, The Pikes Peak Library
District Foundation, Colorado
Springs, CO, embarked on an
Indiegogo campaign as part of a
larger fundraising venture, for the
new location, Library 21c. The
campaign was established to raise
funds to purchase a MakerBot
Replicator Z-18 (Cruz, 2014).
Paonia was one of six public
libraries nationwide selected for
the pilot Super Wi-Fi project from
the Gigabit Libraries Network, but
it was only for a trial period. If the
library wanted to keep its Wi-Fi
hotspots permanently, it had to
purchase the equipment, the total
cost of which was $6,000. The
library successfully raised money
through crowd funding within one
month (Cottell, 2014).
Librarians Justin Hoenke and
Kate Tkacik used fundraising
through social media that resulted
in $1,700 for the library advocacy
organization. Using social media
12 LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 10 2018, pp. 12-14, V
CEmerald Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-03-2018-0017
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